strength of Fiberglass

[superpop]

Hi Folks, I am thinking about building a swim platform for my 96 Wellcraft Eclipse and I an contemplating bolting the platform to the underside of the existing small deck that is there now. I have some pretty beefy extruded aluminum that I picked up at Boeing Surplus and I was going to bolt this to the underside of the deck that is there and then attach a teak platform to that. I would back all the bolts but I am just wondering if this would compromise the fiberglass at all. There is a 4 inch wide cavity there now that is filled with foam, in other words when you are looking back over the motor, you can see the cavity, so the transom comes up from the bottom and then curves at a 45 degree angle and that is the bottom of the small deck, the top of the deck is part of the top of the boat. I am 270 pounds so the glass will have to support me.

 

[tcindie]

Re: strength of Fiberglass

Any way you can tie your bracing for the platform into the transom? That top glass is probably fairly thin and would most likely crack -- or at the very least flex a lot if you suspend a platform off of it and hang any significant amount of weight off the edge.

 

[oops!]

Re: strength of Fiberglass

or at the very least flex a lot if you suspend a platform off of it and hang any significant amount of weight off the edge.

the above is correct......bolt the alum from the transom......if you cant....you have to get in there and put a wood or steel backing plate behind the bolts....

the way you want would work for a season or two ...but stress cracks would develop in the gellcoat